Life may take Visa, but Orlando area tax offices might not

Central Florida tax collectors are dropping Visa over a dispute about a fee to cover credit-card transaction costs.

As of today, the Orange County tax collector will stop honoring Visa cards for any kind of transaction at any of the offices and on the Web site.

Tax collectors in Osceola, Polk, Lake and Volusia counties, for now, will accept Visa online but not at any of their offices. They say they have no other choice because Visa is prohibiting them from charging a user fee to cover what it costs to process payments made with the cards.

"I can't eat that cost," said Polk County Tax Collector Joe Tedder. "And I can't add a little bit more to your tax bill to cover the cost of processing the credit card you might or might not use."

Florida law does not allow government agencies to spread the cost of the transactions to all of their customers, especially those who pay with cash.

Merchants cover that expense by adding it to their prices.

The tax collectors' decisions apply to more than property-tax payments. The decisions extend to drivers-license renewals, car-tag fees, occupational licenses, and fishing and hunting permits. In an e-mail, a Visa spokesman said the situation was a misunderstanding but would not elaborate.

"Visa Inc. does allow U.S. merchants to charge convenience fees on Visa transactions if they meet certain criteria," Ted Carr said. "Acceptable convenience fees are always flat or fixed, not a percentage of the sale, and must be included in the total transaction amount."

But the tax collectors say Visa told them to stop charging the user fees or they could face legal repercussions.

Tedder calls Visa's stance a bullying tactic.

"Visa believes they are the big dog on campus," he said. "They dominate the market, so they think they can dictate policy in this area. Fine. We choose not to do business with them."